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Saturday, July 16, 2011

Vogue 1120 DKNY Dress, version 2

The dress is finished, it should have been done days ago but it was left hanging on my dressform waiting to be hemmed. I always seem to run out of steam at the end of projects and the hem in this slippery silk was fiddly so I kept putting it off. Of course it actually only took about 20 minutes to do once I got around to it, I will learn one day....

I only had 2.5 yards of 45" fabric and the pattern called for 3.25, but I was determined that I wanted to make this dress in this fabric so I had to do a bit of jiggery pokery (technical term) to do to make this work as follows;

left off the pockets

made the ties narrower and pieced them

left off the hem facings

left sleeves unlined

I don't recommend always buying less fabric but it is interesting how much you can save with a few changes that don't compromise the overall design.

One annoying thing about this design is that the front facing wants to flip out so I handstitched it to the front with invisible stitches underneath the pleats. If you are confident of doing a perfectly neat job, narrow binding might be a better option. That said, the pattern is now out of print, but there are plenty of patterns with similar necklines around and the rest is just a basic shift.

This dress is so comfortable to wear, here I have dressed it up with gold tone heels and clutch bag, but I will wear this a bit more simply for everyday wear (yes I do wear silk dresses quite often, they are perfect for our hot summers).

In sewing room news, I did do the promised tidy up and all I managed to find was that in addition to losing the Cynthia Steffe dress pattern I wanted to make next, I have also misplaced my February Burda and 2 yards of orange cotton fabric. They must all be together somewhere weird, I will probably find them in a kitchen cupboard or something in a few years time.

I really do love this number, particularly for the colour. I recall the good ol' days when silk dresses were de rigeur for getting through a humid work day down in the Commercial Building on Queens' Road East. I suspect BusinessWeek has upgraded their digs since my day.Great jiggery pokery!

I'm guilty of jiggery pokery on so many of my projects, probably because I almost always buy fabric without a particular project in mind. As a rule I hate facings, they always flip up so I usually avoid patterns with facings or convert it into a bias binding where possible.Absolutely agree on the silk! Makes humid hot weather more bearable.

I love your dress - that's one of my favourite colours, and it looks great on you. I have made this dress as a top in a turquoise silk (I had such a tiny amount...) and had been curious about how the drape would change with the additional length. I'm tempted...